[dbrunell]

A couple of observations, from a long-time computer user and network administrator.. I have used mostly Pee Cees in the 20+ years I have been messing around with computers, but I am always open to other platforms, when it makes sense in a given situation.

I will assume that our goal is to have a professional-quality, stable Pro Tools system. While this might be possible with a host-based system, that's not how the pros generally work. They prefer TDM, and for good reasons.

Software drives hardware. Not the other way around. When you have a single, specific application to run, such as Pro Tools, you want it to run on the best, most stable platform available. Pro Tools grew up in the Mac environment. It has matured on this platform and runs most stably on it.

Choosing a hardware platform and then seeing if your software will run on it is sort of like going to McDonalds and seeing if you can get some fine French cuisine. It doesn't work that way. If you want some fine French cuisine (software), you ask around and learn what restaurants (hardware platform) serve it.

Also, looking at the plug-in and application list on the Digi site, I see that there are a lot of them only available for the Mac. If you want to have the widest selection of plug-ins, run your PT on a Mac.

Sure, the current Intel-based hardware has more raw horsepower. But raw horsepower is not an overriding concern in a system where most of the processing power comes from plug-in DSP cards. In host-based systems, yes, but remember, we're talking about running Pro Tools on the *best* platform, with the best stability, and hardware/software support.

Just my 2 cents.
Doug